NNPCL logo

The Federal Government secured a reprieve for the tumbling Naira on Wednesday, with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and Afreximbank jointly signing a commitment letter and term sheet for an emergency $3 billion crude oil repayment loan. The signing, which took place today at the bank’s headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, will provide some immediate disbursement that will enable the NNPCL to support the Federal Government in its ongoing fiscal and monetary policy reforms aimed at stabilising the exchange rate market. The Naira in recent times crashed to an all-time low last week, hitting N950 on the parallel market, a development experts described as a death knell on the economy. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, since his inauguration on May 29, has taken a cocktail of measures that have upset the economy in what analysts described as too many iron bars in the fire at the same time. The NNPCL explained that the deal is not a crude-for-refined products swap but an upfront cash loan against proceeds from a limited amount of future crude oil production. On if the loan is a risky package, the national oil company said its exposure level was very limited, covering just a fraction of its entitlements.

Sun